Text -- Jeremiah 52:17-34 (NET)

52:17 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the “The Sea.” They took all the bronze to Babylon. 52:18 They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. 52:19 The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. 52:20 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple (including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” and the movable stands) was too heavy to be weighed. 52:21 Each of the pillars was about 27 feet high, about 18 feet in circumference, three inches thick, and hollow. 52:22 The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it. 52:23 There were ninety-six pomegranate-shaped ornaments on the sides; in all there were one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments over the latticework that went around it. 52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile away from its land. 52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; 52:29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 52:30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.

Jehoiachin in Exile

52:31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 52:32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 52:33 Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 52:34 He was given daily provisions by the king of Babylon for the rest of his life until the day he died.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 52:17

¹ sn For discussion of the items listed here, see the study notes at Jer 27:19.

NET Notes: Jer 52:18

¹ sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.

² sn These trimming shears were used to trim the wicks of the lamps.

³ tn Heb “with which they served (or “fulfilled their duty”).”

NET Notes: Jer 52:19

¹ sn The censers held the embers used for the incense offerings.

² sn These vessels were used for drink offerings.

NET Notes: Jer 52:20

¹ tc The translation follows the LXX (Greek version), which reflects the description in 1 Kgs 7:25-26. The Hebrew text reads, “the twelve bronze bulls under the movable stands.” הַיָּם (hayyam, “The Sea”) has been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton; note that the following form, הַמְּכֹנוֹת (hammÿkhonot, “the movable stands”), also begins with the article.

NET Notes: Jer 52:21

¹ tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.

² tn Heb “twelve cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.

³ tn Heb “four fingers.”

NET Notes: Jer 52:22

¹ tn Heb “five cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.

NET Notes: Jer 52:24

¹ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

NET Notes: Jer 52:25

¹ tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

NET Notes: Jer 52:27

¹ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”

NET Notes: Jer 52:28

¹ tn Heb “these are the people.”

² sn This would be 597 b.c.

NET Notes: Jer 52:29

¹ sn This would be 586 b.c.

NET Notes: Jer 52:30

¹ sn This would be 581 b.c.

NET Notes: Jer 52:31

¹ sn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:28 has “twenty-seventh.”

² sn The twenty-fifth day would be March 20, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

³ tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”

NET Notes: Jer 52:32

¹ tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of

NET Notes: Jer 52:33

¹ tn The subject is unstated in the Hebrew text, but Jehoiachin is clearly the subject of the following verb.